Why Ghost Will Not Run on Shared Hosting

So you have a blog and you have heard about the new blogging platform in the neighborhood…Ghost. If you already have hosting, your probably wondering if you can install Ghost alongside what you already have to try it out. If you have a shared hosting account, unfortunately you most likely cannot.

Ghost is a brand new blogging CMS (content management system) that a lot bloggers are wanting to try out. Currently when most people host their website, they use what is called shared hosting. Shared hosting is where a hosting company provisions a server into many "account spaces" where bloggers can setup their website in their own space. In this environment your files are segregated from all other users but all users share the same operating system and server software. Because all of the users of a shared hosting environment share the same software, there are restrictions put in place so your actions can not affect the other users.

The new blogging platform, Ghost, runs on a platform called Node.js. This is the reason why you cannot install Ghost on your shared hosting account. Node.js is most likely not part of your shared hosting account and you cannot install it. Because Node.js is also pretty new, so it is not commonly found preinstalled on shared hosting environments.

But do not give up hope! There are many options to quickly setup Ghost outside of your shared hosting account. For starters you can install it locally on your computer:

Many others, check the right side of this site for all our install tutorials

Don't let the Virtual Private Server part scare you! That just means you are allowed to install addition software without disrupting your web sever neighbors. We break everything down step by step, but if you get stuck or have questions about setting Ghost up in your environment leave a comment or tweet us @howtoghost.